Francisco Franco

Franco, Francisco

(fränthēs`kō fräng`kō), 1892–1975, Spanish general and caudillo [leader]. He became a general at the age of 32 after commanding the Spanish Foreign Legion in Morocco. During the next 10 years he enhanced his military reputation in a variety of commands and became identified politically with the conservative nationalist position. In 1934 he was appointed chief of the general staff by the rightist government, and he suppressed the uprising of the miners in Asturias. When the Popular Front came to power (Feb., 1936), he was made military governor of the Canary Islands, a significant demotion. In July, 1936, Franco joined the military uprising that precipitated the Spanish civil warSpanish civil war,1936–39, conflict in which the conservative and traditionalist forces in Spain rose against and finally overthrew the second Spanish republic. The Second Republic.....Click the link for more information.. He flew to Morocco, took command of the most powerful segment of the Spanish army, and led it back to Spain. He became head of the Insurgent government in Oct., 1936. In 1937 he merged all the other Nationalist political parties with the FalangeFalange[Span.,=phalanx], Spanish political party, founded in 1933 as Falange Española by José António Primo de Rivera, son of the former Spanish dictator......Click the link for more information., assuming leadership of the new party. With German and Italian help he ended the civil war with victory for the Nationalists in Mar., 1939. Franco dealt ruthlessly with his opposition and established a firmly controlled corporative state. Although close to the AxisAxis,coalition of countries headed by Germany, Italy, and Japan, 1936–45 (see World War II). The expression "Rome-Berlin axis" originated in Oct., 1936, with an accord reached by Hitler and Mussolini. The Axis was solidified by an Italo-German alliance in May, 1939......Click the link for more information. powers and despite their pressure, Franco kept Spain a nonbelligerent in World War II. He dismissed (1942) his vigorously pro-Axis minister and principal collaborator, Ramón Serrano SúñerSerrano Súñer, Ramón, 1901–2003, Spanish politician. A conservative member of the Cortes (1933–36), he joined his brother-in-law, Francisco Franco, early in the Spanish civil war (1936–39) and became Nationalist minister of the interior.....Click the link for more information.. After the war Franco maneuvered to establish favorable relations with the United States and its allies. He further reduced the power of the Falange and erected the facade of a liberalized regime. The law of succession (1947) promulgated by Franco declared Spain a kingdom, with himself as regent pending the choice of a king. Diplomatic relations were established with the United States and other members of the United Nations in 1950, and as the cold war continued Franco secured massive U.S. economic aid in return for military bases in Spain. From 1959 onward, Franco presided over governments that were increasingly concerned with technological change and economic development. Very successful in these fields, the regime was forced to grant even greater social and political liberties, except in the Basque provinces, where a fierce struggle against separatists raged. The greater de facto freedom allowed growing vocal opposition to Franco's regime, even from the Falange, whose exclusion from power was increased after the appointment of Luis Carrero BlancoCarrero Blanco, Luis, 1903–73, Spanish statesman and naval officer. Following the Spanish civil war, during which he served in the Nationalist navy, he became chief of naval operations on the admiralty staff and one of Francisco Franco's intimate collaborators......Click the link for more information. as vice premier. Franco, however, firmly maintained his position of power, even after the assassination of Carrero Blanco in 1973. In 1969, Franco named as his successor the Bourbon prince, Juan CarlosJuan Carlos I, 1938–, king of Spain (1975–2014), b. Rome. The grandson of Alfonso XIII, he was educated in Switzerland and in Spain. Placed by his father, Don Juan de Borbón, under the care of Francisco Franco as a possible successor, he graduated from.....Click the link for more information..

Franco, Francisco

Franco graduated from the Infantry Academy in Toledo. He fought in the Spanish colonial wars in Africa. In 1936, Franco led a military fascist revolt against the Spanish republic, with the help and later the open intervention of fascist Germany and Italy. In 1939, after the fall of the republic, he was declared the supreme leader (caudillo) of the Spanish state by a military junta. Franco simultaneously was the leader of the Spanish Falange party, premier (a post he relinquished in 1973), and commander in chief of the armed forces. In 1947 he passed a law on the succession to the throne, in accordance with which Spain “in conformity with tradition” was declared a kingdom, but the restoration of royal power was delayed until Franco’s departure from political life. In accordance with a decree on July 22, 1969, Prince Juan Carlos was proclaimed the next king of Spain.

That is to say, we need to trace the social roots that generate and nurture sexist acts of discrimination in Franco's Spain and understand how these ended up oppressing not only the regime's enemies but also the regime's followers.

His study, Fear and Progress: Ordinary Lives in Franco's Spain, 1939-1975, is an attempt to set the historical record straight by demonstrating that it is wrong, as some academics and Franco's apologists have done, to credit him and his regime for having laid the framework for Spain's remarkable metamorphosis from a backward country into a modern, democratic European nation.

But she has used some of her experiences growing up during the war and living in Franco's Spain for the basis of a second novel, Cans Salvans, The House on the Hill, which she says was emotionally difficult to write.

Thus, historical study of Franco's Spain in these years is often done through the lens of foreign policy and strategy--how did Franco maintain the veneer if not the spirit of neutrality in a conflict where those who had assisted him to power, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, were the aggressors?

The Duke of Parcent's accounts of Auschwitz, mass shootings, and the destruction of Warsaw did not end the war any sooner, or play any role in the bringing to justice of the Nazi perpetrators responsible for these inhumanities, but they demonstrate that even states as pro-German as Franco's Spain could object to the excesses of the Third Reich.

For more than 35 years from the victory of his Nationalist forces until the dictator's death in 1975, Francisco Franco's Spain lived a world apart from the political, economic, social, cultural and literary forces that shaped Western Europe after World War II--except for the ever-swelling numbers of pale northern Europeans getting themselves sunburned on Spain's southern beaches.

All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.